India hosting Asian meet for disaster risk reduction

The Government of India is going to adopt Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) for the first time through its first major inter-governmental event, Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, 2016. 

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday briefed media at National Media Center here on the two-day conference which will also be attended by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

“The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) 2016 here on Thursday. 

This is the first major inter-governmental event after the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR). Scheduled to be held from November 3-5, 2016, this Conference will pave the way towards implementation of this Framework in the Asian region. It will also devise a mechanism for monitoring its progress,” Singh mentioned.

The Sendai Framework, adopted at the third UN World Conference in Sendai, Japan in March 2015, is the first major agreement of the post-2015 development agenda and identifies targets and priority action areas towards reducing disaster risk. 

India is committed to address issues concerning DRR and strengthen resilience to disasters. To realise this, Prime Minister Modi launched India's first National Disaster Management Plan, designed in line with the priorities defined in the Sendai Framework, earlier this year. The hosting of the AMCDRR 2016 reaffirms India's commitment to the cause of DRR.

The Conference will discuss issues related to DRR in 6 technical, 22 thematic and 3 featured sessions during the Conference. The technical events will be broadly based on themes related to Risk Sensitive Development for Community Resilience. 

All the three featured events - Risk Resilient Infrastructure for Sustainable Development, Application of Science and Technology for prevention of new risks and Regional Cooperation - will be chaired by India. Led by governments as well as NGOs, academics and other stakeholders,  the thematic sessions will be held in parallel on 3rd and 4th November. These sessions will dwell on issues such as Gender sensitive DRR, Child-centered DRR etc., at length.